


finding a semicolon

by toomuchsky



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Gen, M/M, Shotgunning, Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-24
Updated: 2014-03-24
Packaged: 2018-01-16 22:14:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1363603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toomuchsky/pseuds/toomuchsky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>leo's  a run on sentence. nico seems to be the only one who can bring out the semicolons in the metaphor that is leo's existence. basically an excuse to write high school au angsty smoking and shotgunning leo and nico who are best friends and an overabundance of run on sentences myself because it's a ~metaphor</p>
            </blockquote>





	finding a semicolon

**Author's Note:**

> so this little drabble is based off of my [pjo high school headcanons](http://toomuchsky.tumblr.com/tagged/pjo%20hs%20au) so read those first if you want background; also i wrote it on tumblr bc i was too lazy to open up word so there's absolutely 0 capitalization whoops

the wind was biting cold and leo breathed it as deep into his lungs as he could before exhaling into the dark sky. he loved this weather, which seemed odd because he loved heat and warmth and fire too, but fire was that much more warm when the weather is so cold it knocks the breath out of you when you have to struggle to even breathe as the wind ramrods into your chest and leo laughs and laughs because that’s when he lights his cig and takes the longest drag he can watches the smoke trails bend and shift as it disperses into the air off on its own adventure— 

leo was a run on sentence

he’d been told that, but he’d never believed it until he caught his mother giving him her look for him that was their code for “leo i love you but you’re being ridiculous right now” as he kept rambling about something or other the day that she had died.

leo took another drag of his cig as he flicked the lighter on off on off on off on off to watch the flames dance and bend. fire had killed his mother. fire couldn’t kill him.

and if fire couldn’t, the cold might — which was probably why leo liked it so much.

——

it should have been me. nico thinks every time he sees bianca’s picture. every time he gets a text from his father saying “an 87 is not good enough. don’t make me have to talk to your history teacher again nico.” i’m not good enough.

it should have been me.

it’s not enough to tell him he’d tried. not enough to tell him the average had been a 62 and he’d done the best out of everyone in the class. he wasn’t enough.

it should have been me.

he got to the doors to the Ledge. the cold punched him as he walked outside, but he was used to it anyway.

he liked the cold — it felt like death.

——

leo sensed nico coming up the stairs to the Ledge and turned around, flicking the lighter on again as he did. in the dark, the other boy’s eyes glinted like obsidian in the light of the flames. 

"can i bum a cig?"

leo snorted, laughing. “do you even need to ask anymore?”

"give me the damn cig, leo"

leo grinned and threw him a cig from his pack and flicked the lighter on to the end of it. nico took a long drag and exhaled.

leo always thought nico looked the hottest when he was smoking — when he looked like he was on fire. he allowed himself a chuckle at the obvious pun that could be made while taking the last drag on his cig.

leo lit himself another one. if nico was here, it would be a long night.

"how’s hazel?" nico asked.

leo shrugged. “you see her more than i do”

nico shook his head. “dad takes up all her time when she’s home. i haven’t talked to her in a while.” he snorted and leo waited out the pause. “he bought her a horse.” he took another drag. leo loved watched the embers fall from his pale fingers in the night sky as he fought to keep from shivering. the cold had always bothered nico more than it had leo. “not that i’m against that. hazel’s beyond ecstatic about it. as long as she’s happy, i’m happy.”

leo didn’t say anything. just waited. leo may be a run on sentence, but nico di angelo always managed to wrestle a period out of him — or at least a semicolon.

"a horse for her and a ‘why couldn’t you do better than an 87 on an impossible test we weren’t supposed to get above an 80 on anyway’ for me." he snorted. took a drag. paused. looked at leo. tripped over his words as he said, "i’m not in love with you you know."

leo turned to watch him just as he exhaled smoke again. “i know.”

nico stepped closer. leo took a drag as he took a step closer as well. he pulled nico’s face to his and liplocked him as he exhaled the smoke and the chemicals and the furnace the nuclear reaction waiting to happen into nico’s mouth.

nico licked his mouth. leo nipped lightly. their teeth crashed together. leo pressed his lips lightly to nico’s before pulling off and taking another drag and then turning to stare at the lights of the city flickering below them.

"i just wish. i wish he would. just. look at me the way he does her. it’s like he’s a completely different person with her than with me. what do i have to do to make him look at me like he looks at her?” he sighed. “not that. i’m blaming hazel. i love hazel.”

leo doesn’t say anything. he never has to and he loves it.

nico doesn’t say anything either. leo hears him take one two three four more drags before he walks up next to leo, kills his cig on the concrete railing, and grabs leo’s neck to pull him toward nico. “just fucking kiss me again.” and their lips met once more.

fire couldn’t kill him. the cold might, but it was more likely that nico di angelo would get there first. leo was more than okay with that


End file.
